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Tlotliso Gift Leotlela, who goes by his middle name, had a debut Diamond League track meet to remember.
Stretching over the line first by one-thousandth of a second ahead of Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala and USA’s Kenny Bednarek, Leotlela clocked 9.97s to win the 100m race at the 2026 Diamond League opener in Shanghai/Keqiao.
But the 28-year-old’s career has been one of ups and downs.
From being South Africa’s sprinting prodigy to being described as their ‘forgotten man,’ here are the top things you need to know about the University of Pretoria graduate lining up for a stellar 2026.
Gift Leotlela’s early years
Born and raised in Phuthaditjhaba, a mountainous part of South Africa’s Free State province, Leotlela credits his mother as instrumental in his success on and off the track.
“She raised us as a single parent,” he told World Athletics. “Although times were not always easy, she never once complained. She is the one who taught me the importance of perseverance. If there is one person I never want to disappoint, it is my mom.”
As a teenager, Leotlela moved four hours from home to the University of Pretoria to pursue an Information Science degree, balancing his studies as a ‘Tuks’ student athlete.
South Africa’s youngest Olympic track star – Gift Leotlela
Leotlela remembers his first breakthrough as an athlete as coming second at the SA Schools 200m as a 15-year-old.
Giving him the confidence to compete against the best in the nation, Leotlela’s rise seemed unstoppable.
In 2015, as a 17-year-old, he ran 10.20 over the 100m in the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa – at the time, the joint-second fastest time by an under-18 runner.
Then 2016 saw him win silver at the World Junior Championships and qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at just 18 years and two months old, becoming the youngest track and field athlete to represent South Africa at the Games.
Despite going out in the heats in Brazil, Leotlela’s trajectory remained promising.
For much of 2017, Leotlela continued setting personal bests, and set a new South African 100m junior record of 10.12.
Injury strikes: “The darkest of days”
It felt like Leotlela could do little wrong, until April 2017.
An injury during the South African Championships in Potchefstroom ruled him out with a lower back fracture. Then, hamstring issues took their hold.
For two years, he barely raced.
His first race back in 2019 was off the pace he desired – he ran 11.43 over 100m at a meet in Germany – but remains special in his mind: “I did not realise how I missed hearing those words (on your marks),” he told Team South Africa.
“My adrenaline started pumping. Unfortunately, I was really rusty. Not that it mattered. I was racing in front of spectators. It was fantastic.”
He managed to find his feet over the next two years, qualifying for Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021) via a new 9.94 personal best in April 2021. In Japan, he started the heats in fine form, winning his race in 10.04.
In the semi-finals, though, another elusion of luck. Pulling up before the line, a grade two hamstring tear denied him the final and the chance to compete in the 4x100m relay.
Less than a year later, he tore the tendons in his knee.
He would have to wait until 2025, a patient and gruelling seven years since injury troubles began, to find top form again.
The gift of 2025
Leotlela described those seven years to SuperSport as the “long, sad, depressing journey.”
But in 2025, he returned from the darkness for the best season of his professional career.
Returning as his coach – the same man who had guided him as a teenager – was the renowned Thabo Matebedi, affectionately known in South Africa as ‘Coach T’. It was a major turning point for Leotlela.
Changing environments seemingly sparked a renewal and outpouring of support. “When you go through a lot, you need support,” he said to SuperSport. “I had that.”
He captured his first Athletics South Africa Senior Track and Field 100m crown, before hitting a new high at the World Championships in Tokyo with a 9.87 personal best in heats and a 9.95 finish in the final to land him fifth place.
Now, five years on from proclaiming to the University of Pretoria website back in 2021 that a sub-10-second 100m was his aim, he has done so at both a World Championships and on the Diamond League, albeit after a near-career-ending injury saga.
“It is what motivates me,” he said in 2021. “There is so much more I can give to the sport.”
READ MORE: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/top-things-gift-leotlela-south-africa-diamond-league-race-winner
